This was a family trip for Christmas with my parents, sister, nieces and my
husband.

We will NEVER cruise with Carnival again.

We thoroughly enjoyed the rooms, dinner and dining staff as well as the bar
staff. That was the highlight of the cruise and the only positives I can muster
up.

2 of the 3 excursions we booked got cancelled and rescheduled (we didn't find
out until we got off the ship and ready to go on the excursion - our steward
didn't deliver the notification until after dinner the next day - and he was
NEVER available). Due to the rescheduling - we were not able to get to a beach
on EITHER port of call. Carnival offered a $51.00 credit on $300 worth of
excursions - which was a start, but did not make up for missed experiences on
the islands.

We booked 3 rooms - 2 in January 2005 and 1 in February 2005 - Carnival did not
put the rooms close or even on the same deck - even though we requested it that
way. Carnival did not book us all at the same dining table, but we were able to
fix this prior to setting sail fortunately. We were surprised at the casual
nature of dress in the dining rooms as well - like the passengers didn't care to
even look nice at dinner.

No instructions on room to room calling, room service, laundry service or any
other in-cabin services were available to us. Phones did not work to call the
desk most of the time and our room steward ignored any calls that we made to him
to request even ice - yet we were required to tip him.

There was a Bingo fiasco that my sister was appalled by. The lady calling
numbers was doing it wrong and over 25 people got Bingo - then were throwing a
fit because they all wanted free cruises (security was called in at this point)
- they were promised another game later in the day and 3 free cruises instead of
1 - when the rescheduled Bingo came - they were told that the cruise line would
not let them give away 3 cruises.

Karaoke was a joke on board. The Karaoke guy couldn't sing a note, and his
selection was worse than I have ever seen with a minimal selection. There was a
group in this lounge that would take the Karaoke books to their rooms the night
before and fill out their forms, stack them all up on the KJ's stand before he
got there and put everyone else's on the bottom of the stack. We counted 12
singers in a row from this group one night until someone different from the
group got chosen. We tried to participate every night and usually didn't get a
song until after 11:30 each night (they began at 9:00 and closed at midnight).
This event was open to children as well, which really was not appropriate -
especially at a late hour.

Leaving the ship was a nightmare. We were told to wait in the Universe Lounge at
7:55 for instructions. By 9:00 - we were so chapped that we got in the cattle
line to exit the boat - no one ever gave us instructions. Passengers were
cranky, pushing and complaining. As we got to customs, there was only one man
there with a cart - we had to drag all our luggage ourselves, holding up the
line behind us because we were dropping our bags. I felt bad for the people
behind us.

So, Carnival - thanks but no thanks. This was not a relaxing vacation - at least
being with my family was fun - but we could have done that for free at home.